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It's no secret that successful workplace collaboration is best facilitated when other things bring people together besides shared professional goals. Colleagues can also be more effective in their workplace if they get on well with each other, have shared experiences, and enjoy being together.
In a workplace with a good atmosphere, where there is trust and a closer, more informal relationship between team members, communication is bound to be much better. This in turn has positive effects in a wide range of everyday work situations: conflict management becomes more effective, stress levels are lower, employees are more motivated and satisfied, and turnover can be reduced.
In general, such a well-functioning community can make even the workplace more attractive, and creativity can be stimulated by the liberated atmosphere. In internal corporate communication, it therefore makes sense to seize all opportunities and tools to support community building.
The community-building and community-forming power of sports, games, and competition is known to all. The sport also has a thousand good messages for the world of work (sportsmanship, leadership, perseverance, teamwork, building from failure, etc.).
From small leagues to internal corporate campaigns to promote physical activity to various fan groups, sports can be part of the workplace community in many different ways. And when attention is already focused on a major sporting event, it's all the more important to seize the opportunity and the interest of colleagues.
The 2024 European Championship is a great opportunity to shake up your workplace community with a variety of approaches and activities. Even those who are not particularly passionate about football are more likely to get involved.
If you can, organize a gathering to watch the match at an outside venue, or even at the office if possible. Cheering together is a great experience, and cheering for your home team is particularly uplifting. And if you have colleagues from abroad and their country's national team has qualified for the European Championship, don't forget them either. Such good-humored, informal events always make a big difference to the community.
Organize a betting game at work - the more people who participate, the better. Predicting the outcome of a match can be more sportsmanlike if you follow European football, but that's not the point. You don't need to know or love football to participate and find a corporate Euro betting game entertaining. Someone who is not a big football fan can easily win in the end. And let's stop there for a moment.
1. an easy to fill out format (e.g. Excel, Google Forms, etc.)
2. simple rules and scoring
3. anyone can participate in the game
4. no background knowledge of football
5. provide some basic, introductory information about the European Championship (in the form of a quiz, video, etc.; e.g.: the European Championship is held every four years; the first was in 1960; this year is the 17th; the defending champions are Italy; it will be held in Germany from 14 June to 14 July 2024, etc.)
Super keen football colleagues can also be given extra space to develop. It's best if you can organize your little league because it's a great way to promote the importance of sports and an active lifestyle (as well as cheering, which is especially fun when colleagues are rooting for each other). You can also set up online football quizzes that go a little deeper and explore a wider range of knowledge, or even start a sports ambassador program (since many people already follow the NFL at home, you can also come up with a bold, almost hornets' nest theme: European football vs American football - but really, it's at your own responsibility!)
If you'd like to do an insider betting game with your colleagues for the European Football Championship, head over to the Blue Colibri app. In the app, you can find all the European Championship matches and tips of your colleagues. You don't even have to enter the results manually, as they are automatically recorded. What's more, it also manages and scores the tips received. The scoring is straightforward, whoever guesses who will win the match gets 1 point, whoever guesses the goal difference gets 2 points and whoever guesses the exact final score gets 3 points. The app also automatically generates a leaderboard based on the current points scored by the participants in the betting game.
There are still a few months to go until the European Championship, but don't leave the planning and promotion of your company's community-building campaign to the last minute. You can vote together to decide on the prizes for the winners of the betting game, schedule corporate podcasts on the topic, and gather ideas from football fans. Get your colleagues active, because the countdown is about to start: from 14 June 2024, it's the European Football Championship!
